RHEL-on-ipu.md

Installing RHEL on the Intel IPU

This guide outlines the process of installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on an Intel Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU). Please note that these instructions involve various steps, primarily carried out on an ARM server and an x86 system with access to the Intel Management Controller (IMC).

Prerequisites

• x86 system with access to the IMC

Step-by-Step Installation Process

In case anything has been left behind from previous attempts, run the following commands to clean up mount points:

mkdir -p /mnt/p4
umount /mnt/p4
kpartx -dv /dev/loop3
losetup -d /dev/loop3

After shutting down the virtual machine, proceed to mount the raw image to access its contents. Note that you need to replace the parition number p3 below with the root partition from the Virtual Machine:

losetup /dev/loop3 /root/disk-3.raw
kpartx -a /dev/loop3
mount /dev/mapper/loop3p4 /mnt/p4

Create an archive of the root filesystem:

tar cf rootfs.tar /mnt

Copying and Preparing Root Filesystem on x86 System

Copy the resulting rootfs.tar to an x86 system that has access to the IMC:

scp rootfs.tar <x86-system>`

From the x86 system, transfer the rootfs.tar to the IMC:

scp rootfs.tar [email protected]:/work

Configuring the IMC

ssh [email protected] "date -s '$(date)'"

Connect to the IMC via SSH:

ssh [email protected]
date -s ...

Prepare the p4 partition, assuming it's already formatted as ext4:

mkdir -p /mnt/p4
mount /dev/nvme0n1p4 /mnt/p4
rm -rf /mnt/p4
tar xf /work/rootfs.tar -C /mnt/p4
umount /mnt/p4

Modify /etc/fstab to ensure it points to the correct device:

echo "/dev/sda /                       ext4     defaults        0 0" > /mnt/p4/etc/fstab

Modifying Kernel Arguments

Add selinux=0 to the kernel arguments in /mnt/imc/acc_variable/acc-config.json:

{     "acc_watchdog_timer": 60,     "kernel": {         "boot_params" : "ip=192.168.0.2::192.168.0.1:255.255.255.0::enp0s1f0:off root=/dev/sda rw netroot=iscsi:192.168.0.1::::iqn.e2000:acc initrdmem=0x440c000000,0x8000000 acpi=force selinux=0"     } }

Preparing the kernel and initrd

git clone https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle.git
cd coccinelle/
bash -c "sh <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ocaml/opam/master/shell/install.sh)"
opam init
opam install Ocaml
eval $(opam env --switch=default)
./autogen
./configure
source env.sh
make clean
make
make install

Finalizing

Reboot the IMC to cause the ACC to reboot too:

reboot

This process should result in the successful installation RHEL on the Intel IPU.